Archive for the ‘retro games’ tag

One of the great tests for any sandbox game is to see what happens when you throw your toys out of the pram and go on a good old fashioned killing spree. Whether it’s starting a police chase in the GTA series, trying to take on the whole Third Reich at once in The Saboteur or picking fights with the population of Oblivion, these moments let us test the boundaries of the game and experiment freely. They can also be incredibly fun.

Unless you’re playing Boiling Point.

My personal killing spree in Boiling Point: Road To Hell began quite by chance. Returning to town from a spell in the jungle, I’d just saved the game and driven into the main town when, whoops, splat! I’d run over a local, oh dear. Somebody was shooting at my car in retaliation so I got out, identified the shooter as another civilian and killed him. It seemed rude not to under the circumstances and I hoped I could consider the matter settled. Unfortunately, things just escalated.

I’ve played the life out of Duke Nukem 3D over the years, trying most of the different editions and even somehow managing to tolerate the terrible controls of the iPhone version. It helped to shape my taste in games, though more for the impressive amount of detail and interactivity that was built into the levels than for the reasons you’d think would appeal to a teenage boy…

Really though, when I look back on Duke Nukem 3D I don’t think of the game itself – instead, I remember the shareware demo, which came on a disc I got with a games magazine as a young lad. That disc was one of my most treasured possessions at the time, as it contained demos for a whole bunch of games, not least of which were Duke and Quake. Much fun was had.